This refutes earlier reports from mainstream media that Russia was selling its gold to raise reserves. Quite the opposite: Russia is accelerating their gold purchases to prop up the rouble. Eventually, between China and Russia (and Iran), their respective currencies will be backed by gold. This would destroy the value of fiat currencies from insolvent western economies.

Negative interest rates are pretty much unprecedented. Instead of paying investors interest on deposits, banks are charging depositors interest to park their money.
Given the risks inherent in IOU's (interest rate, reinvestment, inflation, default, rating downgrades, liquidity), it's mind-boggling that investors are buying debt instruments at all. But to be charged an interest rate on top of all the negatives indicates a financial universe gone mad.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Federal Reserve Bank presidents and governors are often deservedly portrayed as anti-gold proponents (at least while they are in office) due to their official mandate to support a strong dollar policy (and unofficial mandate to suppress precious metals). For the alert, check out Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher's portfolio. It belongs in the "do as I do, not as I say category."

On the contrary, Fisher's hawkish tone often is the lone dissenting voice against a dovish Fed stance. so Fisher talks the talk, and actually walks the walk.

This a re-run of Kyle Bass, who forecasted the subprime mortgage meltdown and financial crisis of 2008. His predictions in 2011 have not come to fruition--at least not yet. His purchase of a $1 million of nickels is extreme, but it's a classic move coherent with Gresham's Law. Sorry readers, some things you'll just have to Google.http://www.zerohedge.com/news/some-words-advice-kyle-bass

The author of this article sounds like an anti-American, conspiratorial, lunatic fringe blogger who's gone off the reservation. He manages to demonize both aisles of our political spectrum. The only problem with that narrative is he is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Economic Policy, who worked for the Reagan administration. Here is his impressive curriculum vitae:

If crude oil did indeed bottom out last week, accompanied by peaks in the USDollar and US Treasury bond prices (i.e. a bottoming of yields), guess where gold and silver are headed? Of course, nothing rises or drops in a straight line, so high volatility in all asset classes should not be surprising. Prices at the gas pump have already jumped higher.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

I'm sure this very disturbing video will be taken down soon. Ukrainian armed forces are captured and paraded through eastern Ukrainian civilian groups imploring the Ukrainian military to stop shelling their own country.

Who are the evil forces? "Russian separatists" backed by Putin, or Ukraine Prime Minister Poroshenko, who was put into power by NATO and the US?

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Some of our best ideas come to us during the most inopportune times: waking up, in the shower, driving along a country road...my blog is an attempt to capture these epiphanies, whether whimsical or serious in nature. These blogs are heavily weighted toward financial matters and/or innovation (e.g. disruptive technology)--normally boring subject matter. But when sprinkled in with meanderings about human nature, I hope to shed some light on oft-misunderstood topics--without being dogmatic. Enjoy and perhaps learn a thing or two from my moments of clarity.

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